Method of making pile weather stripping



Apnl 4, 1967 M. KESSLER 3,311,960

METHOD OF MAKING FILE WEATHER STRIPPING Filed July :51, 1964 INVENTOR Milton Kessler BY V ATTORNEY United States Patent 3,311,960 METHOD OF MAKING PILE WEATHER STRIPPING Milton Kessler, 4535 Grove Drive, Youngstown, Ohio 44512 Filed July 31, 1964, Ser. No. 386,532 7 Claims. (Cl. 28-72) This invention relates to weather stripping, and more particularly to a new type of pile weather stripping for sealing doors and windows against weather, and to a method for producing such weather stripping.

Pile weather stripping has been used in the past to seal sliding doors and windows, to provide a weather resistant path of travel for vehicle windows, and for a final seal for storm windows and doors. There have been two basic types of pile weather stripping (and the term pile weather stripping is used herein to distinguish from the spring metal or plastic weather stripping) (a) a woven stripping and (b) a flocked stripping.

The woven stripping comprises a stiff backing with pile woven onto it. The pile loops may be left intact as woven, or they may be cut to provide twice the number of free ends. The flocked stripping alsocomprises a stiff backing and includes a carrier onto which an adhesive is coated and small fibers are blown, shaken or otherwise applied. The woven weather stripping is rela tively expensive, but effective. The flocked stripping is relatively inexpensive, but less effective. Both have their drawbacks.

It is an object of this invention to provide a new and improved pile weather stripping.

It is another object of this invention to provide a new and improved pile weather stripping which is inexpensive.

It is a further object of this invention to provide a new and improved pile weather stripping which is effective.

It is still another object of this invention to provide a new and improved method for manufacturing pile weather stripping.

Additional objects and advantages of this invention will become apparent as the following description proceeds, which description should be considered together with the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a portion of the pile weather stripping of this invention during the process of manufacture;

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of a stiff backing which can be used with the stripping of the invention;

FIG. 3 is a perspective view showing the fabric of the weather stripping of the invention being forced into its backing member;

FIG. 4 is a schematic showing in perspective of the steps of the manufacture of the pile weather stripping of the invention; and

FIG. 5 is a perspective view of a modification of the pile weather stripping of the invention.

Referring now to the drawings in detail, and, in particular to FIG. 1, the reference character 11 designates a rather stiff base having its sides 12 and 13 partially bent back on itself. The edges of the sides 12 and 13 may be serrated and are spaced at sufiioient distance apart to receive a twisted rope or cord 14 between them. An adhesive 17 is placed on the bottom portion of the base 11 in a position occupied by the cord 14 to attach the cord 14 to the base 11. A knife is diagrammatically shown slitting the cord 14 to produce the fibers 16.

As indicated earlier, the woven pile is effective, but it is expensive, and the flocked pile is inexpensive, but it is not very effective due to the short fibers. The stripping of this invention is both inexpensive and effective. For effective operation of a pile weather stripping, :the pile of the backing 31 to hold 3,311,966 Patented Apr. 4, 1967 should be formed of a material which is abrasive resistant and which requires little or no lubrication. Also, the individual fibers should be of substantial length so that they may be readily compressed or bent upon each other by the window or door to effect a denser seal. These features are accomplished by the stripping of this invention in the following manner.

The base 11 may be sheet metal or a suitable stiff plastic. In either case, the backing material is inexpensive. If the backing material is formed of plastic, it may be extruded at low cost. The cord 14 is preferably a thin rope of nylon or similar material which has a low coefficient of fniction and is resistant to both abrasion and water. In its normal condition, the nylon rope 14 may be used as a weather strip, but a material with many more outstanding fibers, a fuzzier material, is more effective for the purpose. I has been found that slitting the rope -14 longitudinally produces a material which is much more effective as a pile weather stripping. Thus, as shown in FIG. 1, the backing 11 with the nylon rope 14 is moved toward the left past the knife blade 15 which slits the top of the rope 14. This produces a fuzzy effect as shown at 16. The resulting material is the pile weather stripping.

In FIG. 2 there is illustrated a [modified backing member 21 for the weather stripping. This backing member comprises sides 22 and 23 which are bent back upon the base for a short distance. The sides 22 and 23 are then bent at right angles to the base and again back on the base to form a pair of steps 24 and 25. The edges of the final steps 24 and 25 are serrated to better grip the pile material, and are separated an amount sufiicient to receive the pile material. In use, the sides 22 and 23 may be left slightly divergent rather than parallel to the base so that the pile material may more readily be inserted. When the pile material is in place, the sides are :then bent toward each other to close the gap and better grip the pile material.

Although the slitting illustrated in FIG. 1 of the simple rope produces a satisfactory pile weather strip, it has been found that slightly loosening the twist of the rope and forcing the turns closer together before slitting produces a higher pile and a better strip. In FIG. 3, the step of forcing the rope 34 into the space between the sides 32 and 33 of the base 31 is shown by way of illustrating the principle only. Any suitable tool, shown as the book 35, grips some of the rope 34 by means of the curved portion 36, and, moving toward the left as shown, forces the loosened twists 37 of the rope 34 together, causing them to pile up as shown. Automatic production equipment for doing this is not part of the present invention. An adhesive 38 may be applied to the inside the rope 34 in place.

After the adhesive of FIG. 3 has set, the entire assembly may be processed as shown in FIG. 4. The

weather stripping is moved toward the left of the figure. The first operation is the slitting of the top of the rope 44 by the knife 45 to produce the fiber 46. The slit itself is shown at 47. A cylinder 48 mounted on a driven shaft 49 carries with it several sets of combs 51. The cylinder 48 is rotating as the weather stripping is moved past it toward the left, and the combs 51 comb out and raise the fibers produced by the slitting of the rope 44. As the fibers are combed, they stand up perpendicular to the rope 44 as shown at 52. A pair of reciprocating shears 53 having a movable blade 54 and an operating arm 55 cuts the tops of the upstanding fibers 52 evenly to the same height, and produces a combed, level weather stripping as shown at 56.

For wide installations, the weather stripping shown in the earlier figures may not do, since each is narrow in width. FIG. 5 illustrates in perspective a combination weather strip which uses this invention. A backing member 61 comprises two sides 62 and 63 bent back upon the base at a small angle. In addition, two vertical partitions 64 and 65 extending part way up from the base, divide the base into three separate compartments. Three ropes 66, 67, and 68 are inserted into the three compartments of the backing strip. Each of the ropes 66, 67 and 68 is held in place by a suitable adhesive 69.

After the backing member and the three ropes are assembled, the unit is processed in the manner shown in FIG. 4. This produces an even pile weather stripping with relatively long fibers. When the unit is in use, the pressure of the door or window in which it is installed tends to compress the fibers so that they overlap to produce what is essentially a single wide unit.

Rope is comparatively inexpensive, and the backing members may be of extruded vinyl or polyvinyl chloride, or the like at low cost. The operations described above to produce the pile weather stripping are simple and may be made automatic to produce a long fiber, inexpensive weather stripping which equals or exceeds the quality of previous woven weather stripping, and at a fraction of the cost. As mentioned above, the backing member may be metal or it may be inexpensive extruded plastic. By the same token, the rope may be formed of any of several materials. Cotton rope is satisfactory, but it does not have the resistance to abrasion which is desirable and is susceptible to damage by water. Nylon rope is more satisfactory since it fiutfs up well, has a low coefiicient of friction and is resistant to both abrasion and to water damage. In addition, ropes of other materials such as Dacron, polyethelene, and the like may be found suitable. If desirable, the step of trimming may be eliminated. The combing may also be eliminated, but a much better weather stripping is produced if the cut fiber is combed.

The invention is adaptable to any width of Weather stripping as well as to any length. In addition, it is also adaptable to channel type Weather stripping as well as angle strips. In fact, it is the shape of the base member which limits the general shape of the weather stripping, and the method set forth herein as well as the stripping itself may be produced in many shapes.

This specification has described a new and improved weather stripping of the pile type and a new and improved method of making it. The improved weather stripping is etfective and inexpensive; the method of producing it is simple. It is realized that the description may suggest to others in the art other ways in which the principles of this invention may be utilized, and it is, therefore, intended that this invention be limited only by the scope of the appended claims.

What is claimed is:

1. The method of making an elongated fiber weather a backing memberwith at least a single channel, fastening a twisted fiber rope in said channel, and cutting the exposed twisted fibers of said rope to form an exposed operative pile for said weather stripping.

2. The method of making pile weather stripping for use in weather sealing doors and windows, said method comprising the steps of providing a relatively stiff backing member having at least one channel therein, inserting a twisted cord in said channel by pushing it in from one end to thereby fluff up the twisted fibers, cutting the exposed top fibers of said cord, and combing up the cut fibers to form an operative pile.

3. The method of making pile weather stripping for use in weather sealing doors and windows, said method comprising the steps of providing a relatively stiff backing member having at least one channel formed therein, pushing a twisted fiber cord into said channel from one end thereof to flufi' up said twisted cord, cutting the top exposed fibers of said cord, combing up said cut fibers, and shearing the combed fibers to a single length to form an operative pile for weather sealing.

4. A method of manufacturing pile weather stripping, said method comprising the steps of providing a channel support strip, inserting into said channel a twisted fiber rope, and slitting the fibers which are exposed at the open side of said channel to form a pile thereof.

5. A method of manufacturing pile weather stripping comprising the steps of inserting a twisted fiber cord into a channel member, and slitting those fibers of the twisted cord which are exposed by the open side of said channel.

6. A method of manufacturing pile weather stripping, said method comprising the steps of forcing a twisted fiber cord into a channel from the end thereof to fiuif up said twisted fibers, slitting the fibers exposed by the open side of said channel, and combing said out fibers to form a pile.

7. A method of manufacturing pile weather stripping, said method comprising the steps of forcing a twisted fiber cord into a channel to partiaily untwist said fibers and slightly distort the shape of said cord, cutting the fibers exposed by the open side of said channel, combing said cut fibers, and shearing said combed fibers to an approximately equal length.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,253,999 1/1918 Clark 19-64 X 2,781,555 2/1957 MacHenry 28-67 X 2,890,503 6/1959 'Paine 2069 X 3,002,253 10/ 1961 Kessler. 3,096,561 7/1963 McNally et al 262 X 3,154,823 11/1964 Horton 20-69 3,175,256 3/1965 Horton 2069 FOREIGN PATENTS 3,960 10/ 1919 Netherlands.

r ALEXANDER WYMAN, Primary Examiner. stripping, sa1d method comprising the steps of forming 5) HARRISON MOSELY, JACOB STEINBERG,

Examiners.

W. E. HEATON, W. A. POWELL, Assistant Examiners. 

1. THE METHOD OF MAKING AN ELONGATED FIBER WEATHER STRIPPING, SAID METHOD OF COMPRISING THE STEPS OF FORMING A BACKING MEMBER WITH AT LEAST A SINGLE CHANNEL, FASTENING A TWISTED FIBER ROPE IN SAID CHANNEL, AND CUTTING THE EXPOSED TWISTED FIBERS OF SAID ROPE TO FORM AN EXPOSED OPERATIVE PILE FOR SAID WEATHER STRIPPING. 